Exploring Edinburgh - some sites and shops

Now that us Sweeneys are settling in better here on William Street, I have had some time to explore a bit of Edinburgh this last week. My feet are still recovering from this last Wednesday when an ol' mate of mine, from my BYU Art History days, came to visit me. Rosalie just finished her Masters in Archaeology at York Uni. She made for about the best traveling and exploring company you can find anywhere. She was broken into the traveling on foot routine in these parts and so she nearly wore me out (I always hear people say that about me and now I am humbled to be on the other end of it this time).

We went up to the observatory where we some neat, unfinished architectural projects.

Apparently the place was meant to become a monument to the Waterloo battle but they never completed it. Still, it makes for some great views and pics.  

It was a good intro to the city sites since you get an arial view of the northern oceanscape

the southern cityscape,

also a great view of the spectacular Holyrood Park

After descending Calton Hill, we walked past the Scottish Parliament office on Regent Street, on our way to Holyrood Park. A view from the street looked down onto Kirkyard Church.

The graveyard looked so intriguing and picturesque (if a graveyard can be picturesque that is) that I insisted on finding our way to it. Rosalie, being the laid back pal that she is, said a detour would be a-okay. So glad she was because I think that it was one of my favorite things I have done here so far. Apparently the place is famous for having Adam Smith's grave there but I was so distracted with other small intrigues walking through it that I didn't even notice. My favorite encounters included:

this red doorway on the side,

looking for the oldest graves through stones like these (I found one from 1701 which since the place was erected in 1690 is probably nearly as old as it gets there),



getting Rosalie to dish out all of her superb archaeology analyzing skills (why rock weathers in places that it does, which rocks last better than others, etc),



seeing the vine plant remains leaving a mosaic on the wall of a tomb,

and the mossy letters of a shaded, broken gravestone.

It was great fun and I couldn't help thinking back on a stellar children's book called The Graveyard Book I just read by English author Neil Gaiman. The images in the book seemed to take on a new life walking through there. It was spooky delightful.

On to Holyrood we went. The views were incredible and out of sorts a bit. So strange to stand on a wild island of land in the middle of such an old and developed city. There was towering cliff on one side.

Then there would be huge vistas of cityscape on the other.

It was really something else. Rosalie and I celebrated our grand adventure walk by stopping and picking handfuls of wild blackberries. They were marvelous. When we finished, I felt my feet aching subtle complaints to me, so we began a descent once again into the city.

Our final trip of the day was to see the Lewis Chessmen at the National Museum of Scotland.

They are on loan from the British Museum just until this weekend, so we counted ourselves lucky that we got to take a look at the little wonders and speculate on their mysterious story before they left the city. Again, Rosalie was great company to give me insights into the nuances of the terminology used about their discovery and history. If for nothing else than the great friends I have to go to museums with, sometimes I just am so grateful I got to study art history.

And if you aren't tired of the travelogue yet, let me tell you that a couple days later my friend Alyson took me to an absolutely splendid hat shop on Friday in Haymarket. Never had the desire to go to the Kentucky Derby until stepping into Fabhatrix. If you come visit me, I will take you.